xuanfa utah dharma center

Xuanfa Utah is a meeting place for the learning and practice of Vajrayana (Tibetan) Buddhism. Located in Salt Lake City, we welcome all who wish to learn the true Buddha-dharma that leads to liberation. We meet weekly on Sundays morning at 10:30 AM to learn Buddhist teachings, read Buddhist texts and talk about our Buddhist practice. We are under the direction of Gesang Suolang Rinpoche who has achieved Zeng De Certification (Blue Button Grade Two).

The lotus

The lotus flower is a beautiful symbol of the enlightened mind of the Buddha. Rooted in the mud, the flower rises up through the muddy, moving waters of samsara (samsara refers to our ordinary existence with its frustrations, discontents and sufferings).

Where does the lotus flower bloom?

The lotus blooms above the surface of the water, thus symbolizing our potential to go beyond samsara, to become Buddhas and no longer subject to karmic rebirth. This is the hallmark and the great good news of the Buddha’s teaching. We can liberate ourselves from endlessly cycling through samsara lifetime after lifetime. Or, as enlightened Bodhisattvas, we can choose rebirth in samsara to help other living beings liberate themselves.

There is a path to Buddhahood and right here, right now, we can follow this path. All living beings have the buddha nature and someday we will all be Buddhas.

The Path

At Xuanfa Utah we offer true Buddha-dharma enabling us to realize enlightenment and liberation. We learn the Buddha’s teachings, learn the excellent Dharma practices and emulate the conduct of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in thought, word and deed in our daily lives. This is known as self-cultivation. Through our practice we increase our good fortune, our Wisdom and eventually realize the Wisdom powers to help other living beings in profound and wonderful ways.

Karma

"The goal of learning Buddhism is actually learning the subject of cause and effect and using cause and effect to change your own karmic forces all the way up to the time you become liberated and realize the supreme enlightenment." -- H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III

The so-called good effects or bad effects of karma are not a judgment nor given as a reward or punishment by a supra-mundane authority such as God. The good or bad effect produced by good or bad karma is purely and simply a natural phenomenon governed by natural laws that act automatically, with complete justice. It is just like the law of gravity. This law of Karma is so powerful that it governs everything in the universe except enlightened beings or those who recognize their basic original nature. Upon enlightenment, the round of cause and effect loses its significance, just as samsara, or the round of birth and death, ceases with enlightenment. Since basic or original nature transcends all duality and is ultimate, there is no one to receive the effect, whether it is good or bad, and no one to whom any effect can apply. This explanation by the Buddha of the nullification of the Law of Karma is very important. – Zhaxi Zhuoma Rinpoche